Google TV to be powered by ARM “soon”

Nearly a year after Google entered talks with ARM Holdings, Google TV is speculated to be made available on the cheap, efficient ARM chipsets later this year. Charbax of ARMdevices.net published an article last week stating he has it on “very high authority from someone at Google (to remain anonymous) that an ARM-powered Google TV platform is coming soon.”

The first version of Google TV was designed for Intel’s x86 chips, but a statement from ARM president Tudor Brown last year made it clear that they’re seeking a more flexible alternative. “If Google TV is to be mainstream, it must be built on a lower power system,” said Brown, and “on lower cost technology” than Intel’s Atom processors.

Google TV’s second version was supposed to be on display at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, but Google allegedly asked their partners to delay their launches. Is that why the Android-based Cydle M7’s TV tuner was out of order during the show? And what other companies were planning to incorporate Google’s TV into the multitude of Android-powered devices released at CES?

Is that why so many Android phones and tablets have release dates slated near the end of the quarter?

It may be nothing more than my own little conspiracy theory. Either way, if Google TV is coming to ARM processors, that might indeed be its ticket to the mainstream. ARM’s technology is currently found in 95 percent of the world’s mobile handsets and more than 25 percent of all electronic devices. So, they’re obviously versatile.

What I would really like to see is for Google to combine Android, Chrome OS and Google TV into a single platform, giving users the ability to use a single device as their TV, computer, smartphone and/or tablet by way of different docks (like the Motorola Atrix 4G, perhaps?). There would be no need to sync your devices to each other as they would all run on the same brain. Upgrading your phone would simultaneously upgrade your TV and laptop.

But whether a collaboration with ARM is the first step towards this ideal future I just thought of or simply a way to watch TV on your Nexus S, we’ll have to wait and see.